The Hero's Journey In Black Clover

 

The hero’s journey is probably one of the most used journeys that’s used in the media today. It’s fun, entertaining, and usually provides an excellent story for the viewer to consume. This is one reason why the hero’s journey is often seen in various sorts of anime. There are plenty of shows out there that show a hero and then dive into their own journey. It’s pretty interesting and honestly really cool to see how each creator takes on the hero’s journey differently. Aside from each story having its own sense of uniqueness, a good amount of anime tends to run longer than most shows, so the case of repeating steps would most likely occur. Here, the hero might go on a repeat of certain steps, going in little loops of the same couple of parts for as many times as they need in order to progress. Of course, this usually happens with shows that have a lot of seasons. Although, a good example of this repeated progression would be Black Clover. This magical and adventurous anime (originally a manga created by Yūki Tabata) stars the main character Asta, and follows his goal to become the wizard king of the magical Clover Kingdom. This story, being blatantly about a hero, has excellent representations of the hero’s journey, and has great parts that clearly show a repeat in the steps. While the manga is still ongoing, the anime has been on a hiatus for a couple of years, awaiting its return of the epic continuation with season 5. Even though the story is unfinished, I still believe there are some good representations of the hero’s journey in it. So strap in as I break down the hero’s journey in Black Clover (so far at least).

WARNING: This post contains spoilers, obviously

We start any good story with the call to adventure. For Black Clover, this would be Asta discovering the powerful job of the wizard king, and then and there setting his mind to becoming it no matter what it takes. In this world magic is everything and everywhere. Everyone has magical abilities (some more than others), and you practically need it to get by in life. Asta however, is magicless, he can’t even absorb a drop of mana. This, of course, proves to be his general refusal of the call. Although to get by even farther in life, one needs a grimoire, a book filled with knowledge to enhance one’s magical abilities. Asta, being magicless, doesn’t receive one, proving to be an even bigger refusal. This doesn’t stop him forever though, and after attempting to retrieve his brother Yuno’s 4-leaf grimoire from nobles who stole it, the 5-leaf grimoire appears before him granting him the power of anti-magic and a cool sword. To me this proves to be his supernatural aid, because one can’t use strength alone to become the wizard king of magic. Now that he’s obtained a grimoire, the next step in becoming the wizard king would be joining a magic knights squad. In order to do that, you take an entrance exam, testing your magical abilities. Asta, not having said magical abilities, kind of fails miserably, and no magic knight captains ask him to join their squad. This doesn’t stop him though, as he speaks up asking why they wouldn’t choose him. To this, captain of the Black Bulls Yami Sukehiro takes him up, officially making him a member of the black bulls. He’s crossed the first threshold, actually managing to join a magic knight squad. And now Asta is one step closer to becoming the wizard king.

From here he’s sent on his first mission, officially marking him as being in the belly of the whale. He along with members Noel and Magna are sent to a village to go boar hunting. Things go awry however, as mysterious people appear and attack the village. Now being a magic knight, Asta and the others go to defend it. It’s a little difficult for him at first having no magic to defend and all, but he doesn’t give up and eventually succeeds in protecting it. Prevailing in this unexpected situation, Asta gains yet another sword and even more confidence in becoming the next wizard king. From here he is sent on a few more missions, embarking on a road of trials. Each mission he comes back a bit stronger and more knowledgeable on his anti-magic. Along with this, he gets to better know his squad mates which in return allows for them to further realize  the steps to achieve their own goals. 

Like I said earlier, Black Clover isn’t finished. For this series in particular, the arcs tend to focus heavily on these different trials, which makes it kind of hard to depict where other steps might be hidden. We are still very much in the initiation phase, and I don’t think it'll be reaching the return phase all that soon. However, one might think to themself “where exactly are we in the initiation phase?”, and to that I say that I’m honestly not all that sure. In shows and other pieces of media like Black Clover, a certain step or multitude of steps might repeat, forcing the journey to go in a loop. This is mainly seen with the road of trials step, as arguably every obstacle Asta faces could be seen as a trial. Although, because of this repeat in steps, it feels like to me some steps aren’t exactly shown or being used. For example, with the meeting with the goddess step, while Asta is given a love interest it doesn’t feel like it resembles that step. Of course it might just be my opinion, or I may be overlooking things, but when more of the series does eventually get released I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier trying to match it to the hero’s journey.